January in Delhi

After three weeks of family visiting from the UK, life has settled back in to the usual daily rhythm .
The Delhi winter seems to have been short lived, thank goodness!! The weather is warming up nicely in the day with clear blue skies and temperatures in the early 20's. The evening air still has a chill in it but nowhere near as cold as it was. I can't believe that soon we'll be looking back at these 'cool' days with longing! Everyone keeps going on about the horrors of a Delhi summer with it's unrelenting heat, hot winds and dust so I'm trying to make the most of these halcyon days by venturing out on foot somewhere as much a s possible to explore the city.
Yesterday Tim and I discovered Haus Kaus village, a suburb of Delhi further into the city than our sector but it didn't feel like the city at all! Forests surrounded the village, a deer park and a lake which actually is an ancient water tank built by the mogul kings to supply water to the surrounding area. The village is a mixture of ancient tombs and mosques and small 'upmarket' clothes and antique shops, art galleries and eateries. It had more of the feel of a Mediterranean village rather than an Indian one. with its narrow streets and whitewashed houses.,

On Sunday after church we ventured in to central Delhi to a renowned eatery called the Andhra Bhavan. It is more of a canteen than a restaurant and is incredibly popular. When we arrived there was a scrum of people around the entrance, fighting to get in and out!! we had to squeeze through the crowds to get a ticket – we were no.243 and they were at present on no 75!! We wondered if would we have to wait all afternoon but after 50 minutes we tried to once again fight our way through the throng of people to get to the canteen. As soon as we were seated at the formica tables vegetable thalis were given to us along with mutton curry and their famous Hyderbad Biryani. The food was delicious ,really spicy but with wonderful flavours that exploded in your mouth! It was a true Indian meal eaten with our fingers and only cost us £2 a head for as much as we could eat! Worth every minute of the wait. Andrha Bhavan has not seen the last of us!


NO day is ever boring in India – that's why I love it so much. ! I can't remember much happening on drives from my home to Morrisons in Woking but an auto rickshaw ride to the local shops here is fascinating as there is so much going on all around you. As I hurtled down the road today, the rickshaw driver swerving left and right to avoid the many potholes, there was so much to catch my gaze. I passed a bullock cart laden with sacks of grain and a man wobbling along on a bicycle with 5 gas bottles hanging precariously all around. We passed a building site and I saw women carrying huge baskets of bricks balanced expertly on their heads, their multi-coloured saris caked in dust.


At intervals along the roadside there were barrows full of fruit and vegetables and one fruit seller was pushing a barrow laden with green and black mountains of grapes. There were other road side stalls too selling chai ( India's famous hot spicy tea) and others cooking chapatis and samosas and other snacks. I noticed a man by the side of the road having a shave and haircut by a barber, a mirror tied to a fence post . A group of cows meandered lazily down the middle of the road, heading for the overflowing rubbish bins where no doubt they would chew their way through numerous plastic bags. As well as the cows numerous stray dogs lay in the road sunbathing in the sun . The cars and rickshaws managed to manovoure around them, the cows and dogs not flinching in the slightest.! Lots of slum children, their bodies blackened by the sun and layers of grime, hung around the local temple, hoping for food. No expensive toys for them! Instead they seemed happy enough digging around in the dirt with sticks and stones and some boys were swinging on hanging overhead cables ( hopefully not live!!!)
These sights I've just recorded are only a small snapshot of the many things constantly going on on the Indian streets so you can see even a ride to the shops is definitely not boring!!

India really gets under you skin and I feel a bit like Rudyard Kipling who wrote to a friend in 1883 and said

'I am in love with this country and would sooner write about her than anything else........I find the heat and smells and oils and spices and puffs of temple incense and sweat and darkness and dust and lust and cruelty and above all, things wonderful and fascinating, inumerable.'

Dilli me Christmas

When you’re a long way from home, Christmas is a time when you feel the distance, you feel the separation and you particularly feel the difference in culture. Not that Christmas isn’t celebrated in India – the shopping malls celebrate it with great decorations, huge trees and Santa’s grottos. You can buy most Christmassy things here, at a price. We had a tree and decorations, and a limited selection of cards was available. The most ridiculous thing we saw was a box of ordinary shop mince pies on sale at 1200 Rupees - £17!
Our Christmas was a real mix of home and India. On Christmas Eve, we were at a very traditional carol service – 7 lessons and carols, followed by a delicious biryani, kebabs, daal and naan. Our sons, Michael and Simon were with us and we spent Christmas Day itself with friends in the British High Commission compound – turkey, ham and all the trimmings. The turkey was delicious – although it did arrive with the neck still attached and everything still attached inside. There weren’t many volunteers to put their hands in and fish it all out.
One of the highlights of Christmas was going over to the girls’ home and putting on a Christmas party for them. We helped them decorate their Christmas ‘tree’ (actually a couple of bare branches), played games, gave them a traditional tea of samosas and cake, and we had bought presents for all of them – mostly jumpers, jackets and socks as the home is very cold at this time of year. It was so great to see the joy in their faces and how excited they were to get gifts. It really brought home once again how blessed we are, and particularly our children to be brought up in a loving caring environment.
Delhi has been very cold for the last few weeks. I know that for people in the UK who have been struggling with snow and sub-zero temperatures, this will sound like a bit of a whinge, but in the UK, no matter how cold it is, you come home and your house is nice and warm, because it is well insulated and the central heating has been on. Here, there is no heating, we have marble floors and huge gaps around our doors and windows that let the warmth out and cold in. Fortunately, it is heating up a bit now and I am sitting outside in our courtyard as I write this at 9 in the morning.
Our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter have been with us for the last couple of weeks and on Wednesday we took them to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal (our second visit in 2 weeks). It’s about a four hour drive away so it’s a long day trip. Little Siena created quite a stir – many Indians seemed more interested in taking photos of her than the Taj. We lost count of how many times we heard ‘sooo cute’ or ‘soooo sweet’ as we walked around. It was the first time out of our three visits there that the Agra air was clear and you could see the Taj clearly from the fort from where Shah Jahan would gaze down the river to the tomb of his beloved wife Mumtaz. No matter how many times you visit, the Taj is still an incredibly beautiful building and the first sight as you come through the gateway takes your breath away.